the rest of the story

thursday: now if this isn't crazy coincidence for you, casey's dad (who lives in oregon) was in dallas for an elevator convention the same week that we were in texas. neither realized how near the other was, then case's dad happened to call ... yada yada yada, grandpa j got to meet gwen and see addi for the second time.

then we went to mom's timeshare at lake palestine. we played in the kiddie pool and ate a phenomenal burger from a&w. actually, it was the rootbeer that was phenomenal moreso than the burger.

this picture is the singular proof that i was in fact on this vacation

and last but not least, we visited mammaw mildred in her posh retirement home. she turned 90 last year and is still very alive and kicking. i remember whenever i would visit dad one of the highlights would be breakfast at mammaw's: bacon, two fried eggs over-easy cooked in the left-over bacon grease, soft buttery white toast, and a can of 

coke to wash it all down with. the best. 

friday: not too much happened so no pics. case helped mom install some wiring which was predicted to take "between 2-4 hours" ... it took 4+. so i tried to keep addi happy and gwen asleep. then we had dinner with nandi (maternal grandma) and great-aunt francis and big t's bbq. i got chicken fried steak because that's what everyone else was getting. i liked it.

saturday: ike watching and family bbq. the hurricane hit the coast between 2-3 am and blew up to our neck of the woods around 5 pm. mom, case, and add decided to get some laundry done at the laundrymat before we inevitably lost power, so gwenner and i (thank you lauren b. for providing gwen with this nickname) decided to take a tub. (we don't have a bathtub at home, so we were taking about three tubs a day the entire trip). we were splashing and giggling and having a gay old time when the winds started howling ferociously. 

due to past tornado experiences (removed roofs, misplaced vans types of tornadoes) i freaked out and we went and cowered in the living room watching the sky spit on the window panes. the winds kept picking up, i called the fam to get home, because after all clean laundry really isn't that important. as they were piling in the front door, a tree limb the size of a honda civic (hatchback) skated across the roof of the house across the street, taking their fan with it. (you know those little roof fans?? i don't know how else to describe it). not an hour later we lost power and lit all the candles in the house. of course the family party was planned for 6, so people piled into mom's no a/c, candlelit house and we laughed and chatted over bowls of hot gumbo and uncooked garlic bread, watching the storm in it's fury throw broken limbs and cloudfulls of rain in the backyard. 

the funny thing, was friday night i had wanted to drive south to visit some friends and ride out the hurricane with them. what?! i know, sounds crazy. but they are dear friends and i was afraid that if we waited until after the hurricane, they wouldn't have a house or place to visit and i wouldn't get to see them. i had it all planned, then mom and case said, "are you serious?! you're not serious, are you? you want to drive into an area that is under mandatory evacuation?? no." so we didn't.

sunday: but it huffed and it puffed and their house didn't fall. so we visited them sunday. the Ratciffs, my oldest and dearest of friends. brenda ratcliff, mom, babysat me every day for the first two years of my life. her children are like my siblings: missy, michael, drew, johnny, and eric. also, brenda and charlie fellowshipped my mother when she first joined the church. so you could say they're a large part of why i'm a latter-day saint. they even visited me in my last mission area (an hour from their home) about 1 week before my mission ended.

sister myers and ma and pa ratcliff

drew and amy (son ratcliff and daughter-in-law) he built his own bbq/smoker by welding pipes and other metal pieces together and just sold it for $3000. isn't that crazy!!

we drove the two hours southeast to their house, stayed an hour, then headed another hour north-northeast to see their son johnny be called as branch president of the newly formed branch in hemphill, texas, then another two hours west to get home. i got the play the piano at the branch formation meeting. i loved it! i don't think i've tickled the ivories in close to two months now.  anyways, crazy busy, but so worth it. 

gas shortage 101: there was no gas to be found in the southerly regions of texas, so people lined up for blocks and blocks to get gas. there were so many station that were completely shut down because they had been pumped dry. casey was afraid that we wouldn't be able to buy gas to get to the airport and we'd be stranded in texas for weeks. we weren't.

these are love bugs aka fornication bugs. yes my friends ... right here you are beholding two bugs becoming three. i hate these bugs. even though they're bugs, i hate that they're flying around doing their thing. it bugs me. and for whatever reason these were muy abundant this trip - they were in our hair, clothes, all over the girls, flying in the car. they were agressive, folks. down right aggressive.

but we got 'em. oh yah. we got 'em good.

a hurricane-toppled tree

monday: we looked at land for sale because there is so much of it in texas, and it's so cheap compared to hawaii (of course). 

then we had lunch with aunt brenda at a delicious mexican food place. real, authentic texmex here people. mmm mmm good!

then off to dallas to stay at a hotel for the night because our plane left early in the morning. the crazy thing was that as we drove to the hotel we decided to call and confirm our reservation. case called twice and was told both times that there was no reservation under our name. so i called (we thought we'd throw the old 'different voice' trick at 'em) and still they said no reservation. i got feisty and said we had made the reservation several days ago through expedia and i had the confirmation number to prove it. yada yada yada ... expedia had been accepting reservations even though the hotel was not receiving them, because the hotel was full, and had been since last thursday with evacuees. yep, lots and lots of folks had evacuated and there were next-to-none rooms available anywhere in north texas. awesome.

 

so hotel #1 gave us the phone number to hotel #2, hotel #2 was also booked. so hotel #2 gave us the number to hotel #3 ... also booked. but hotel #3 offered to call around and check all other hotels within their chain in the DFW area to see if there were any available rooms. eventually we lucked out with a suite at holiday inn express: one king size bed and a pull-out queen. perfecto. 

but we didn't sleep a wink. case was on the pull-out with addi, becaus addi became a daddy addict on the trip and wouldn't sleep without him, and she's a pretty active sleeper so he didn't sleep much. gwen slept in a crib in the bedroom with me until she woke up at 2:30 and i brought her in the bed. she wiggles, a lot. and she's so adorable, that i mostly stared at her and kept her warm until it was time to get up at 5:30.

tuesday: yeah we're home! thanks Wyneses!

since then: school, pool play, kakela's: fun. pictures to come.